Paperweight In 1984

1984 by George Orwell describes a dystopian society in which Winston Smith, the main character, resides. The society, Oceania, is controlled by The Party, which maintains its regime by employing Thought Police that apprehend anyone with grievances against The Party, or its figure head, Big Brother. The story begins when Winston purchases a blank diary, in which he writes anything he finds necessary to document; this ranges from daily events to anti-Party messages. The first part of the novel describes the totalitarian nature of The Party through the daily experiences of Winston. When Winston bumps into a girl he until this point despised, he receives a note from her saying that she loves him. Upon reading this note, Winston is initially paranoid

Finally, in combination with the aforementioned, the paperweight represents hope, comfort, hopelessness, and Winston's internal dissent for the totalitarian regime of big brother. By channeling his inner most thoughts and desires into the object, Winston is essentially bypassing the all seeing of big brother. However, once the paperweight broke and "the fragment of coral, a tiny crinkle of pink like a sugar rosebud from a cake, rolled across the mat" (Orwell), Winston experienced

First, the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop is one setting that conveys a sense of trust for Winston and he continues to return to this spot to meet with Julia. The major reason for the perception of safety the room provides is there is no telescreen in the room. Winston feels he has the freedom to go about what he pleases and the concern of being caught is relinquished once inside the safe sanctuary. The book quotes, “The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.” “So long as they were actually in this room, they both felt, no harm could come to them.” He is

In essence, the room above the shop could be seen as a haven, where Winston and Julia would be “utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching [them], no voice pursuing [them], no sound except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock” (99). As seen throughout the novel, this room becomes a refuge where they can eat jam, chocolate, and drink real coffee as well as make love without the concern of the party. This setting elicited a flourishing relationship, as paralleled through the paperweight, where Winston “had the feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gate leg table and the clock and the steel engraving and the paperweight itself” (150). The imagery and polysyndeton depicts an amicable atmosphere where Winston desires to further delve into an ideal world, as opposed to the repression of the society that he lives in. The “paperweight

The main character in George Orwell’s 1948 novel, 1984, Winston Smith can be seen as many things. To some, he may be a hero, but to others he is a coward and a fool. Throughout the novel, Winston’s characteristics are explored, and readers are shown the reasoning behind Winston’s twisted mind. It is evident that although Winston thinks he had control over his own mind and body, this is an imagined factor. The world of 1984 is one of a totalitarian society, where no one can be trusted, and no one is safe, Winston being the primary example of one who trusted thoughtlessly.

It is evident by the first chapter that Winston is not a fool, yet intends to play jester in public and continues the act in private. Winston is trapped in his own thoughts and is in dire need of an escape. He finds this evasive escape in the empty journal from Mr. Charrington. Winston’s diary doesn’t just represent a place where he is left free to throw his empty thoughts, it seems to be more. Winston’s secretive scraps of paper represent a place that the Party has not discovered. A place where he can think peacefully without the overbearing weight of the stress of his life or death daily performances and the rebellious thoughts confined and trapped in his head. The diary is similar to the prole apartment that Julia and Winston share. Winston desires a place that has remained untouched by the powerful influence of Big Brother. Winston and Julia have an elicit affair at the flat, which is punishable by the Party. Winston reads by himself and to Julia a book that has been neither altered nor approved of,

This paperweight represents many different things related to Winston. It symbolizes the past in which Winston strives to understand because it is a “little chunk of history they’ve (the Party) forgotten to alter.” It is something little from the past that Winston wishes he knew about. The paperweight also represents his dreams of freedom of the mind, the ability to remember something that “the Party” does not want him to. Also the paperweight does not just represent the past, it represents Winston’s desire to make the substantially important connection to the past. The glass paperweight is also significant because it shows that “the Party” cannot always control every memory that someone carries with them. Also throughout the novel Winston mentions “a place” which is also a very significant part of the novel and his journey. “The Place Where There is No Darkness” is very symbolic to the development of Winston and his thoughts about his fate. Throughout the novel Winston imagines meeting O’Brien in this place. The words first come to him in a dream and he ponders them for the remainder of the novel. Eventually Winston does meet O’Brien in “the place where there is no darkness” and instead of it being paradise like Winston imagined, it is a prison cell where the light is never turned off. Winston’s idea of “the place where there is no darkness” symbolizes his ultimate doomed fate. When the words first come to him Winston thinks

In the novel 1984, George Orwell relates the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning by allowing the reader to see inside of the mind of Winston Smith. Orwell uses Winston’s rebellious thoughts to counteract his actions in order to show the reader how a dystopian society can control the citizens. Although Winston is in an obvious state of disbelief in the society, his actions still oppose his thoughts because of his fear of the government. Winston’s outward conformity and inward questioning relate to the meaning of the novel by showing Winston’s fight to truth being ended by the dystopian society’s government.

“1984” is an imaginary novel wrote by George Orwell in 1949. The novel takes place in a fictional country called Oceania. In 1984, the society is a mess in the control of the “big brother”, people are leveled by three three classes: the upper class party, the middle outer class party, and the lower class proles. But the lower class make up 85 per cent of the people in Oceania. Winston is a outer class party member working for the “big brother”. This novel uses Winston as an example to show how the “big brother” takes the control by mind, manipulation and technology.

The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed…even if he had never set pen to paper” (Orwell 21). It is explained that the Thought Police does not require any evidence to prove one guilty of thoughtcrime as a mere expression would allow for punishment. Policing in Oceania is a prime example of how totalitarianism is a major role in how individualism is frown upon. This limit in self-expression stops people from being hopeful and Winston’s diary not only expresses his desire to be free, but also dehumanizes him as it limits him from speaking his mind. In addition to the lack of self-expression inducing diminished hope for individuality is the lack of personal freedom and consciousness.

Winston eventually walks into the proles’ district and sneaks into a forbidden shop to buy a paperweight, a relic from the past. As he is leaving the store, he realizes that the same dark-haired girl is watching him and believes that she is a spy for the thought police, and that he has surely been found out and will be eliminated.

Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place in the year 1984, in a dystopian state (“an imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror” (My Free Dictionary)), named Oceania. In this state, the people are always monitored by an all seeing, omniscient leader named Big Brother. The main protagonists name is Winston Smith, and he is a low-ranking member of the party that is in charge of Oceania. In this state, even the thoughts of their own citizens can be monitored, and thinking rebellious thoughts is the worst crime of all, known as thoughtcrime. All the while this is going on, Winston hates the party and is a thoughtcriminal. Eventually he meets our other main character, Julia; who one day wrote “I LOVE YOU” on a note and handed it to him. Like Winston, Julia was a thoughtcriminal too, and they then continued onto a love affair, which the thoughtpolice was aware of the entire time.

Winston remembers that the previous day the chocolate ration had been decreased to twenty grams. He wonders how all the people manage to believe the lie. He wonders if he is the only person with a memory. Winston wonders if life has always been the way it is now, and why he feels that some things are intolerable. He thinks he must have an ancestral memory that things had once been different.

The city of Oceania is so deprived of their freedom, that even thinking is considered a crime. This crime is called “thoughtcrime” Winston realizes that he is not like the others so he begins to write his thoughts in a

finds that he is not satisfied with living a controlled life. 1984 is a story about Winston who